Books by Barbara Lee

It Is 1992, and the recession is biting hard. Imogen Kent has never been unemployed before, but finds herself unfairly ejected from her job, and wonders how she will cope. She gets by with odd bits of temp work, babysitting and occasional petty crime. She is not helped by her tricky relationship with her judgemental parents. As Imogen navigates her way through the year, she encounters obstacles such as being sent on a useless course by the Job Centre, having to move out of her flat, and facing her old friends at a school reunion. As if that weren't enough, an old boyfriend, Mick, suddenly comes into her life, but he is as badly off as she is. Can Imogen keep her optimism (not to mention her sanity) into 1993?

Hailed as an honest, candid political memoir in a genre more often characterized by slick, self-serving campaign biographies, this book captures Barbara Lee's extraordinary life and political career from her early upbringing in El Paso, Texas, through her years in Oakland, California, with the Black Panther Party, to her service in the U.S. Congress. In a new Afterword to the paper edition, Lee pays tribute to the Congressional Black Caucus, for which she serves as chair during the 111th Congress, and reflects on the challenges that continue to face our nation at home and abroad.